Count me in: A dinner meeting with Clive Palmer convinced rugby league hardman Glenn Lazarus to overcome his reservations about politics to line up for the Palmer United Party. Pic: Liam Kidston Source: The Courier-Mail

IT ONLY took one blind dinner date to convince Glenn Lazarus his future lay with Clive Palmer and not rugby league.

About a fortnight ago, the former Kangaroo, Bronco and NSW Origin hardman known affectionately by rugby league fans as the "The Brick with Eyes" received an out-of-the-blue call from the billionaire-turned-wannabe prime minister.

It was league legend Ron Coote who told Mr Palmer to consider the retired prop, suggesting he was a possible recruit for his fledgling party.

The call was made and the pair met for dinner with their families at a Brisbane restaurant to discuss general politics and the state of the nation.

"I've got say, I was very impressed - very impressed," Lazarus said.

"Once we had sat down in a relaxed atmosphere with our partners and just spoke candidly about the country, what Clive was saying made a lot of sense."

Glenn Lazarus and Clive Palmer, a match made in heaven.

Last Thursday, the former Blues enforcer stood beside the richest man in Queensland at a highly theatrical function at the Stamford Plaza as the leader of the Palmer United Party's Queensland senate team.

Lazarus is the latest high-profile recruit presented by the troubled political outfit, which in just a few short weeks has managed to stumble from one administrative blunder to the next.

Originally called the United Australia Party, it was forced to change its name after a doomed attempt at registering the title with the Australian Electoral Commission and a stalled trademark application. More than half the Queensland candidates so far named directly work for Mr Palmer, including two of his nephews.

Meanwhile, a series of bizarre press conferences have prompted some observers to question the party's credibility, while a dispute over the sequence of events that led to the tearing up of controversial independent Peter Slipper's membership application left many confused.

It has also been revealed that senior party figure Susie Douglas had applied for membership with Bob Katter's Australian Party less than a fortnight before joining the PUP.

Glenn "The Brick" Lazarus has released his first campaign ads for the Palmer United Party.

Lazarus originally had "doubts" about whether he could "compete in the political arena", but was convinced by Palmer during their dinner meeting that he could fill the No.1 spot on the PUP senate ticket.

He described Palmer as "very inspiring" and said the mining magnate's pitch aligned with his frustrations with the two major parties and what he saw as the "scary path" the nation was following.

"He's very genuine in his reasons why he's doing this and I think that gets questioned too much," Lazarus said. "If you sat down with him, you'd realise that he's genuinely concerned about the future of this country."

Palmer said of Lazarus: "He's a far better person than I am. Glenn Lazarus will be our sports minister when I'm prime minister."

Lazarus told The Sunday Mail he did not believe his blue blood should exclude him from Queensland's political sphere.

Picture: Liam Kidston

"I have children who were born here, I've lived here for roughly 20 years now and obviously played the bulk of my career with the Broncos - but more importantly, I'm an Australian, I played for Australia."

Lazarus - who has won premierships with the Canberra Raiders, Broncos and Melbourne Storm - said he did not consult anyone in rugby league before making his decision.

"I thought that if my family and friends . . . I got their advice more than anything else. I just thought that I'd consult the people it would affect the most," he said.

He admitted to having been approached by another party "a couple of years ago", but said he only recently seriously considered a tilt at politics.

"Recently, I've felt that this country's lacked some real leadership and I think that we're heading down a scary path with the current government and the Opposition."

Having come from a "Labor-aligned family", Lazarus said he began leaning towards conservatism when he began raising a family and managing his marketing business.

He pointed to controversial former premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen as a conservative figure he admired, saying he was a "very honest person" and that he hoped to be as "genuine and approachable and well-liked".

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